This anthology presents a collection of 21 articles describing the full range of U.S. Marine Corps operations in Iraq from 2004 to 2008. During this period, the Marines conducted a wide variety of kinetic and non-kinetic operations as they fought to defeat the Iraq insurgency, build stability, and lay the groundwork for democratic governance.

The selections in this collection include journalistic accounts, scholarly essays, and Marine Corps summaries of action. Our intent is to provide a general overview to educate Marines and the general public about this critical period in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps, the United States, and Iraq. Many of the conclusions are provisional and are being updated and revised as new information and archival resources become available.

The accompanying annotated bibliography provides a detailed overview of where current scholarship on this period currently stands.

The annotated bibliography runs from page 269 through page 294 and includes primary and secondary sources. The articles and bibliographies offer many differing viewpoints. Between the essays and the bibliography, you ought to be reasonably informed about many aspects of the Iraq War from 2004-2008.

In addition to the articles and annotated bibliography there is a useful “Chronology of Events” starting at page 261.

The web version of the book is presented in seven PDF files. If you’d like a paper copy try interlibrary loan through your local public library.

How did US servicemembers pass the time in the field between assignments?

Description:

This book is the journal of company commander (then Captain) Todd S. Brown who led an army company in Iraq from April 2003 through March 2004. From the editor’s introduction:

There is a lot that Todd Brown’s journal is not. It is not an official account, nor does it purport to be. It is not consistent. Todd experiments with his writing style–he was a civil engineering major at the US Military Academy–and bounces around with respect to structure, organization, and delivery. He also bounces through mood swings reflecting good days and bad days. Reading a paragraph in isolation might cause one to believe that the war was winnable or hopeless depending on the exigencies of the moment rather than upon some overarching theory of campaign progression. Sometimes he speaks casually of breathtaking courage, and other times he seems almost whiny.

Captain Brown’s account is supplemented by editor supplied background material at the beginning of each monthly chapter. The work has a glossary and an index as well as five appendices, all of which will be helpful to the writer of stories set in this period:

A. Command and Control at the Brigade and Below

B. The Samarra Paper

C. Civil Samarra

D. Countermortar Operations around the LSA

E. Life Aboard the Bradley

Some of the relations with the Iraqis might be helpful in occupation stories set on other worlds.

What were enemy soldiers expected to take away from “One Minute That Could Save Your Life?”

Where did the Maquis operate? What did they do?

What was it like to be on a flight to supply the Greek Resistance?

What was it like to be an Allied officer fighting with the French Resistance?

Description:

From the forward:

The study describes special operations of the AAF in both the European and Mediterranean theaters, giving the background of the resistance movements; the establishment of Allied agencies and air units to aid the Underground; the planning and execution of the missions; supply operations to western Europe, the Balkans, Italy and Poland; infiltration and evacuation of personnel; and propaganda-leaflet missions from the United Kingdom and Italy. Twenty-three appendixes contain detailed analyses, while a number of maps and charts illustrate the problems encountered in these special operations.

This work has potential to inform activities and characteristics of fictional resistance groups in many eras.

A well illustrated account without table of contents or index about the Marines role in the occupation of Japan. Sidebars show interesting stories such as the oldest Marine in the occupation. Work also shows a number of photographs.

What was it like to be a member of the Filipino Resistance under Japanese occupation?

What was it like to be on Coast Guard Picket Duty during World War II?

How would a Coast Guardsman react to finding Nazi saboteurs on American soil?

How were bed-wetters treated on some Coast Guard vessels?

Description:

This page links to histories from a number of eras. Scroll down to World War II to find over four dozen oral histories from the men and women who served in the Coast Guard in a number of different capacities during World War II. Some of the histories are illustrated with photographs and/or drawings.

Search Tip:

To search for an oral history that matches topics that you are interested in, visit your favorite search engine and do a search in the form of:
[your search terms] inurl:history/weboralhistory
If you use [”bed wetters” inurl:history/weboralhistory], you will retrieve the one oral history that deals with this topic. Note that searching will bring up any oral history that matches your terms, not just oral histories from World War II.

The above search on retrieved items from the Coast Guard Oral history site as of December 2013. If results from other sites appear in your search, do the search again and add site:uscg.mil to the end of it.

United States. 1904. Five years of the War Department following the war with Spain, 1899-1903, as shown in the Annual reports of the Secretary of War. Washington, D.C.: The Dept. – http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/568044050

Representative questions that can be answered with this resource:

What oath were insurgent Filipinos desiring amnesty in 1900 asked to take?

How did the US government view the people they called Tagalogs?

What sorts of Filipinos were exiled to Guam in 1901?

What pest killed off about 90% of Filipino draft animals?

Description:

This work should probably be taken with a grain of salt and cross-checked against other resources. This five year compilation of annual reports of the War Department following the War with Spain was not only written by the victors, but by people who felt they had a superior claim of civilization based on the color of their skin.

Nonetheless it will come in handy for writers by serving as a useful chronology of events for the Philippine Insurrection. It may also help sculpt situations and characters, especially ones with the racialist attitudes of the late 19th Century.

For an overview of the United States intended to shape the Philippines, read through President McKinley’s instructions to the civil Philippines Commission, starting on page 407.

This work is divided by year. The order of the subjects covered varies from year to year. Fortunately, there is an index starting on page 495. Aside from using “Philippines” as a starting point, look at “recommendations made concerning” starting on page 519, or for “Philippines” under other headings.

Although this work is being cited here as a resource on the US efforts to suppress Filipino resistance, this volume also documents the US point of view in the following campaigns:

The Military Government of Porto Rico.

The Development and Establishment of the Republic of Cuba.

The China Relief Expedition of 1900.

The book can be freely downloaded from Google Books and is available in paper at many Federal Depository Libraries. The WorldCat link given for this work links to a HathiTrust version that can be read online, but not downloaded.

The home page of this site hosts a set of videos varying from 2-5 minutes in length that talk about the surrender and occupation of Japan. The videos are entirely newsreel footage with a historical narration. They would well be worth your time to see the ravages of war and mid-20th century uniforms and clothing.

From the front page are links to pages for photos and resources. The photos page is a slideshow of 32 photographs. The photos range from documenting the surrender to people in traditional Japanese dress to a letter to General MacArthur from a Japanese civilian. Mouse over the photographs to see the captions.

The resources page is a mix of official documents and articles from the Army Digest Magazine. I’d highly recommend reading the articles Army Wife in Tokyo from December 1946 and A Soldier in Kyushu from October 1947. These are first person accounts from fairly low level personnel and might make for good Point of View (POV) characters. The one page “Instrument of Surrender” might make a good template for surrender treaties in military stories.

This is an electronic edition of a 1975 book published by the Center of Military History of the US Army. From the introduction:

This volume provides an authoritative account of the role of the US Army in military government and occupation of Germany from the inception of planning until the relative separation of military government and tactical troops in 1946. In the process it offers an in-depth study of the first year, the formative period of the occupation, a most eventful phase in the shaping of post-war Europe. The story ranges from Washington and theater headquarters down to military government detachments in the field, and covers the varied national and international civilian and military apparatus that evolved. Illustrating the diverse approaches of the Americans, British, and Russians, it analyzes efforts to combat hunger, disease, and crime, preserve cultural artifacts, re-establish industry and utilities, and resolve thorny problems involving currency, housing, education, newspapers, elections, and displaced persons. The account shows the pitfalls and difficulties in planning, organizing, and executing such a complex undertaking.

The book has a number of photographs and drawings that might help someone either with clothes or buildings of the 1940s or with the types of scenes an occupation brings. Some of the more interesting sounding illustrations are:

This is a finding aid to some of the materials generated by the Allied occupation of Germany. The finding aid lists groups of records. Some of the more notable groups are:

466.1 Administrative History

466.2.4 Records of the Office of Economic Affairs

466.2.5 Records of the Office of Political Affairs

466.3 Records of the Land Commissioners 1945-52

466.5 Records of the U.S. Element of the Military Security Board 1947-55

466.6 Records of the U.S. Element of the Extradition Board 1945-55

466.7 Records of U.S. Courts of the Allied High Commission for Germany 1944-55

466.9 Records of the Combined Travel Board of the Allied High Commission for Germany 1945-54

The extradition board had jurisdiction over war criminals and worked with various governments to secure their return to Germany.

As far as I can determine, very few of these records have been digitized. You’ll need to visit the National Archives to see the vast majority of records. If you’re within driving distance of Maryland and are interested in the day to day details of an occupied country, this series would probably help you.

How might an occupier change the educational system of an occupied country?

Where can I find records of Japanese war crimes trials?

Where can I find information on POWs held by Japan?

Description:

This set of records relates to the Pacific and European theaters and include many postwar occupation records. It may be the best source of primary source records on the occupation of Japan. Some of the relevant series include:

331.37.6 Records of other general and special staff sections – This group includes dockets of war criminals.

331.38 Records of the SCAP Diplomatic Section 1945-52 – This group includes correspondence accusing the Soviet Union of obstructive actions in postwar Japan.

331.39.1 Records of the Office of the Chief – Includes items relating to war crimes trials, 1946-49, including court proceedings, affidavits and statements, and related records.

331.39.2 Records of the Administrative Division – Includes records on Japanese POWs, POWs held by the Japanese, aerial photo of the route of the Bataan Death March, information on War crimes trials and instructions to the government of Japan.

331.39.4 Records of the Legislation and Justice Division – Among other things, contains a compilation of Japanese laws from 1884-1947

331.39.5 Records of the Prosecution Division – Contains case files and transcripts for war crimes trials, including war crimes committed in Korea, China and the Phillippine Islands.

331.39.6 Records of the Investigation Division – Contains completed questionnaires from former prisoners of war of the Japanese.

331.40 Records of the SCAP International Prosecution Section (IPS) 1907-48 (bulk 1945-48) – additional records of war crimes trials, including newspaper clippings, trial transcripts and at least one diary kept by a Japanese government minister. Also includes a Japanese newsreel showing interrogation of captured U.S. Pilots and photographs of Japanese soldiers and Alliewed POWs

331.42 Records of the SCAP Government Section 1945-52 – Contains instructions to the government of Japan as well as the Japanese civil service and records relating to religious, cultural, economic, and other organizations in Japan.

331.45.3 Records of the Education Division – Records including teacher training materials and collections of approved and rejected textbooks.

These record groups could be very helpful in providing backgrounds for occupied countries or planets where the invaders have decided to alter just about all aspects of the invaded society. It will also be useful in studying how war crimes cases are established and tried. Unfortunately, it appears none of this material is available electronically, though some of it of it is available in Microfilm. See the “Plan your visit” page from the National Archives at http://www.archives.gov/research/start/plan-visit.html to see how you might go about accessing this material.